44 ALBERT-ERNEST
CARRIER-BELLEUSE
French (active in Paris),
1824-1887
Model for a Monument to
Alexandre Dumas pere,
circa 1883
Terracotta
80.7 cm (31^3 /4in.)
Inscribed on the top of the base:
A. CARRIER BELLEUSE.
Inscribed on the square pillar:
TROiS MOUSQUETAiRESJ
VINGTAns APREsJLES QUARANtE
CinQ/LA ComtESSE de CHARNY.I
AngEPiTOU/LA REiNEMARGOT.I
Comte de MontE CristoJ AcTEJEtc.
Etc. Etc.
94.SC.19
This terracotta sculpture depicts the renowned French writer Alexandre Dumas pere
(1802-1870), who had gained international fame for his historical novels, such as
The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo (both of which are mentioned
in the inscription on the square pillar). Carrier-Belleuse shared a close personal
friendship with the novelist, and his intimate image of Dumas—which consciously
recalls informal portraits of artists from the eighteenth century—seems to reflect this
familiarity. The sculptor depicts Dumas dressed in a simple shirt, trousers, and long
robe or housecoat {robe de chambre), bunched up and held in place in a careless,
disheveled manner. The seeming nonchalance of the writer's attire is in striking contrast
to the dramatic turn of his head and the intensity of his facial expression. With the
fingers of his right hand positioned to hold a pen and his left hand resting on a pile of
manuscript pages, Dumas gazes outward as if momentarily interrupted from his creative
endeavors. The figure of Dumas forms a strong vertical mass, and the composition as a
whole is conceived in broad, simple terms. In this respect, the design foreshadows one
of the greatest modern monuments to a French literary hero, the statue of Balzac by
Auguste Rodin, who had worked as an assistant in Carrier-Belleuse's studio.
A superb and prolific modeler in clay, Carrier-Belleuse created works that are often
characterized by their highly articulated surfaces and abundant detail. The handling
of the clay in the Getty sculpture indicates its function as a sketch model. The edge of
the housecoat preserves the imprints of the sculptor's fingertips as he added bits of clay
and smoothed them into the surface, and the hair exhibits the spontaneous, animated
marks of a stylus or pointed tool. The model was made in preparation for a bronze
monument erected in Dumas's hometown of Villers-Cotterets in 1884. Although
the bronze was destroyed during World War II, its appearance, which closely follows
the model, is documented in photographs from the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries. PAF
120 EUROPEAN SCULPTURE
